


Every step of the way

by kirinokisu



Category: Bleach
Genre: Canon Divergence, M/M, Post-Chapter 624: The Fang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2019-02-07 19:47:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12848256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirinokisu/pseuds/kirinokisu
Summary: Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez and ten women in Ichigo’s life.(Or, how every stage of their relationship somehow coincides with Grimmjow meeting the weird people flocking to Kurosaki.)





	Every step of the way

**Author's Note:**

> 1000000% self-indulgence
> 
> (that was written waaaaaay before The End and therefore ignores All of It, or almost, anyway)

Riruka is bloody annoying. She nags and she lectures and she thinks she’s the boss. She goes on and on about cute things and fluffy things and about Kurosaki. Then denies talking about him even more.

Hell, it's like Apache’s fraccion all at once, only worse, and Grimmjow seriously considers strangling her. More than once. But every time he takes as much as one step closer, someone or something is there to remind him that without her, there is no leeway through the dangai. And without the leeway, there is no Kurosaki.

Which makes everything all the more annoying and ends up in a brawl that isn’t at all satisfying.

So when the garganta is finally— _could they have taken any fucking longer_ —opened, Grimmjow doesn’t even think before stepping through it, all precautions and warnings be damned. He’s fucking tired and he needs to fight someone who actually knows how to fight. Which, he leers as he sees the shocked expression, makes Kurosaki the perfect target. And as Kurosaki’s hands curl around the hilt of his zanpakutou, Grimmjow has a fleeting thought that maybe he doesn’t regret not killing Riruka.

The thought is banished when she, too, detects Kurosaki, and any promise of battle is gone.

“Riruka,” Kurosaki exclaims, and there she goes again. Only louder and bossier. Like a freaking banshee.

Grimmjow wants to kick something, but only pebbles are available.

She soon gets distracted with the other woman, unleashing all of her annoying energy on her and if Grimmjow was anyone else, he would feel pity but he is Grimmjow and Kurosaki finally turns his attention back to him. Asks stupid questions. Gets honest answers.

And looks as if he actually understands.

Naturally, Riruka wants to go with them and Grimmjow is prepared to silence her permanently. But Kurosaki steps forward and gives her the most unfair smile.

She stays.

 

(Grimmjow doesn't spare Riruka another thought ever again, but the memory of that smile plagues him for years to come and he finds himself wondering if Kurosaki is aware what he does to people by simply being himself.)

 

-

 

Yoruichi whacks him on the head and it isn't gentle. Then she whacks Kurosaki too.

“Honestly, you two,” she breathes out in volatile exasperation and Grimmjow refuses to admit he's scared.

Kurosaki, though… He doesn’t get pissed. He fucking _flushes_. And even though he’s stronger than the woman and they all know that, he looks properly chastised.

Grimmjow has never seen this side of him before.

The fear— _that doesn’t exist dammit_ —is forgotten as soon as Grimmjow gets a whiff of quincy stench not very far away. He moves, and doesn’t need to look to know that Kurosaki is moving too, right behind him.

Grimmjow doesn’t ponder whether he’s chasing the quincy or Grimmjow himself. Grimmjow’s heart is pounding pounding pounding to the sound of their footsteps. They’ll take down the quincy, and then, they’ll go against each other, like they’ve been itching to since—

They get as far as the next building.

“It’s a thousand years too early for you two to run away and ruin all of our plans,” the damn cat woman informs them as she stares down at them, expression serious enough that even Grimmjow is forced to stay put.

Kurosaki looks sheepish at that, scratching his neck in embarrassment. He mutters something close to “sorry” and “got carried away”.

Grimmjow snorts. “What plans, woman.”

She whacks them again.

 

(She makes flustering Kurosaki seem so easy.)

 

-

 

 “You've changed,” Nelliel observes.

Sitting on ruble that used to be the Soul King’s palace, they finally have a minute to take a breath, even if it isn't a very deep one. Not that anyone would want to inhale the air polluted with quincy energy, void of spiritual particles.

He almost misses Hueco Mundo.

Kurosaki is over by the broken grand steps, talking quietly with his friends, checking up on them in that Kurosaki way of his. Taking all the blame for every injury, every drop of spilled blood, every failure. What a fucking idiot.

“Two years ago you would have stormed off already.”

Only she would dare to talk to him like that, he thinks. Because she is Nelliel and he still doesn't know what to make of her.

She is above him, yet she doesn't make him feel below. She is strong, but she doesn't like to fight. She follows Kurosaki because she wants too.

And she sees too much.

“You've always been a fighter and not a killer,” she tells him. “Except that now you are aware of it.” She looks at Kurosaki then, with that look that got her kicked off Espada in the first place. Too wise. Too steady. Too soft. “Well, you’re still reckless and rash to the point of self-destruction so I wouldn't worry too much.”

“Oi, you looking for a fight?!”

She smiles.

And goes straight for Kurosaki, jumping him from the back and hanging off him in a suffocating embrace. Grimmjow pretends he doesn't see her brief pointed look at him.

 

(She wants to make him aware of why he’s here, as if he isn’t already.)

 

-

 

Inoue heals him after the battle, but doesn't flinch at his wounds like he expects her too.

“Kurosaki-kun,” she starts. “He’s—he’s—,” she chokes on a sob and pretends she isn't crying and her hands aren't trembling in the warm glow of her healing shield. “Kurosaki-kun is really strong,” she smiles through the tears that flow freely down her cheeks, “but he’s also very gentle.”

Grimmjow has no idea why she’s telling him this; why _here_ and why _now_. Why at all.

“And he cares, so much.” She sniffles again and Grimmjow cannot stand the bloody sound. “That he saved you… It’s not just because it’s in his nature. It’s because he cares about you, too.”

If Grimmjow had any energy left, he would click his tongue in a fraction of annoyance that is swallowing him like an avalanche. _Fucking Kurosaki._

He had almost gone back to hell, again. And it was Kurosaki, bloodied and battered after his own battle, who stepped under the blow that would have been finishing for Grimmjow, _again_.

“You aren't going to hurt him, are you?” the woman asks. He doesn't answer, only turns his head away, towards the blue cloudless sky.

As if he could, he thinks. And somehow the thought isn't bitter anymore.

 

(She isn't afraid of him anymore, and that's okay.)

 

-

 

Tatsuki finds him perched on the railing of the school rooftop, watching Kurosaki. Only because he’s bored and itching for a fight.

“You can see me,” he states.

She frowns and crosses her arms. A fighter, from the looks of it. “You don’t look like a shinigami.”

 _Of course_ Kurosaki would have weird friends. It shouldn’t even be surprising anymore. Nothing about Kurosaki is fucking normal, ever.

That’s why Grimmjow keeps coming back, isn’t it? For the sheer excitement. For the _thrill._

He doesn’t get to ponder the question further— _not that he planned or wanted to_ —because the door swings open again and Kurosaki is there, probably summoned by the reiatsu Grimmjow does not bother to mask.

He still has the gall to gape. “Grimmjow!”

“Friend of yours?” the girl asks when it becomes clear Kurosaki is more interested in staring than speaking. As if seeing Grimmjow is some kind of novelty. As if they hadn’t been sparring every other day.

“No, he’s—,” Kurosaki trails off, uncharacteristically lost. He tries again, with zero success.

Grimmjow laughs out loud.

The sound of his laughter snaps Kurosaki’s startled face to his, and, for a moment, they’re stuck. Their eyes meet and it’s like they cannot look away. The innocent question lies heavy between them, palpable and electric in its intensity.

_What he is to Kurosaki. What the hell Kurosaki is to him._

“Ichigo?” says the girl, crashing into the whatever between them. Kurosaki averts his eyes; the tensions stays.

“He's Grimmjow.”

“I see,” she says after a while, but doesn't specify what exactly it is what she sees.

 

(He runs away that day, after a fight that is not at all satisfying, and doesn't acknowledge his next visit as a conscious return.)

 

-

 

“Your sister saw me,” he tells Kurosaki from his curl on the bed. It's a common occurrence now.

Imperceptibly, Kurosaki tenses. It isn't surprising in the least. But then he takes a breath, rakes a hand through his hair and flops casually beside Grimmjow. Their arms touch, barely.

“What did Karin say?” There is an honest lightness to his tone, a lack of tension that isn't meant to be offensive.

Something inside Grimmjow clenches tight.

“That I have crazy hair.” He rolls his eyes at Kurosaki’s amused snort. “Are you really one to laugh about hair, Kurosaki?”

Kurosaki bumps him in the shoulder. “At least orange is close to natural brown.”

Grimmjow bumps him right back. “Keep telling yourself that.”

He doesn't tell Kurosaki that Karin also threatened to kill him if he ever hurt her brother.

 

(He knows she will never be able to, just as well as he knows that she will try. He respects her bravery all the same.)

 

-

 

Matsumoto walks in on them; shirtless and panting and with Grimmjow’s teeth latched firmly onto Kurosaki’s neck.

Kurosaki’s face is mortified and on fire.

“Well, that certainly puts a damper on my plans of staying here a couple of nights.”

Her voice brings Kurosaki back to life—he scrambles up from the messed sheets, pulling downs his shirt, zipping up his pants and avoiding looking at anything. All at the same time.

Grimmjow doesn't bother with any of those. Simply leans back on the pillows, their softness and smell and texture all too familiar by now.

“So.. Uh.. Matsumoto-san, can I get you anything?”

She looks amused but takes pity on Kurosaki and his pathetic stammering. “Doubt you have any sake laying around so how about some tea? Unless, of course, you do know where your old man’s secret stash is and you are ready to break into it.”

Kurosaki runs off before the words are even fully out. Her smile that is all slyness and secret knowledge disappears as soon as the door closes behind him.

“You do realize the consequences of Gotei 13 learning about this.”

“Are you going to tell them?”

“Should I?” she counters. It isn't threatening, not yet, even though she is a shinigami and he is an arrancar. He supposes this is yet another influence of Kurosaki’s.

Maybe he’s been bloody affected too, because he shrugs and tells her the truth. “Kurosaki is the only one I'm after in this world.”

She cocks her head and something in her gaze speaks of understanding that Grimmjow so does not need.

Kurosaki comes back with a tray full of rattling cups and an expression of someone doomed.

The shinigami woman accepts the offering and smirks. “So, does Isshin know about this?”

Kurosaki’s face is absolutely priceless.

 

(She never reports them.)

 

-

 

Yuzu cannot see him, but Ichigo introduces them all the same.

She is weak and tiny, not like the other one even though they are supposed to be twins.

Kurosaki tells her to ignore “this blue blur” if she sees him around the house, that “it's just Grimmjow”.

“That's very rude, onii-chan,” she chastises in a sisterly voice that leaves no objection. Kurosaki scoffs, and looks away. Grimmjow finds it hilarious.

But then the girl turns in his general direction and bows. “It is very nice to meet you, Grimmjow-san. Please take care of onii-chan. He so rarely brings any friends home.”

Kurosaki scoffs harder at that, displeased and embarrassed, but Grimmjow can see the tension ease off his shoulders.

She is the sign of Kurosaki’s trust and Grimmjow accepts it as such.

 

(She is weak. That is why when Ichigo is not home, he watches over her to make sure no hollows are attracted to Ichigo’s lingering reiatsu.)

 

-

 

Rukia doesn't trust him and he expects nothing less.

She doesn't attack him though, and he hears Ichigo let out a relieved sigh beside him.

Grimmjow suppresses a sigh of his own; really, the idiot is too unaware of how he affects people.

The other shinigami disagrees. “Oi, Ichigo, what the fuck do you think you're doing?! Last time I checked, he tried to kill you!” he snarls in barely contained anger and badly hidden hurt.

But Ichigo doesn't waver. “So did you and half of Gotei.”

“He's an Espada!”

“There is no Espada anymore.”

“He's a hollow!”

It is her who stops him, with a small hand placed on his much bigger one, gripping the hilt of his sword. “Renji,” she says firmly.

He stops, fumes. Turns around and leaves in a flurry.

“Give him time,” she tells Ichigo once the fancy doors to Seireitei close at last and the hat freak’s store is enveloped in dimness once again.

“He's not the one I'm worried about.”

She jolts, as if Ichigo’s words are a physical blow.

“You fool,” she says and hits Ichigo with a spoon. “Do you honestly think that just because Gotei 13 will greatly disapprove, so will I? And you,” she turns to Grimmjow, “hopefully are smart enough to know what Ichigo will do to you if you betray his trust.”

Grimmjow smirks. “You got that right, midget.”

She is too much shinigami and too much Ichigo’s friend; she is alright.

 

(He doesn't feel bad about the past and she doesn't want an apology, because they both understand.)

 

-

 

He finds Ichigo at his mother’s grave. He’s too late in masking his reaitsu.

“Are you going to just stand there?”

Grimmjow shrugs, and walks up the stone steps. “Wasn't sure if you wanted to be alone.”

Ichigo raises an eyebrow, both amused and sceptic. “Are you going soft on me, Grimmjow?”

“Are you looking for a fight, Ichigo?” He echoes, in the same light tone and stops in front of the stone.

He knows shit about human traditions.

“You look like her,” he tells Ichigo.

They’re standing so close the hilt of his sword keeps brushing against the fabric of Ichigo’s jeans, but they aren't touching. These inches that separate them are like one last layer of protection, of safety.

And Ichigo must feel the same because he reaches out with his hand and curls his fingers around Grimmjow’s, squeezing his palm gently, but surely.

“Stay.”

 

(Later, after an all-out fight that left Grimmjow gloriously breathless, cocooned in the warmth of blankets on the tiny bed, Ichigo tells him about his mother and quincy and hollows. He stays.)


End file.
